Aug. 31 (UPI) — Communities along the East Coast dealt with damage from Tropical Storm Idalia Thursday as the storm moved into the Atlantic Ocean.
Idalia barreled into the Big Bend region of Florida’s west coast Wednesday morning with winds up to 120 mph, causing devastating storm surge on the Gulf Coast nearly one year after Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida and decimated large swaths of the state.
At least two deaths in Florida and another in Georgia had been reported, while preliminary estimates have put the total damage and economic loss from Idalia as high as $20 billion so far.
About 241,000 households in Florida and Georgia remained without power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us, with nearly 141,541 outages in Florida and 100,966 in Georgia around 10:30 a.m.
In Florida, more than 95% of homes in Jefferson, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor counties — where Idalia tore through at full strength Wednesday morning — were still waiting for the lights to come back on.
Elsewhere in Florida, Idalia’s storm surge washed away an untold number of homes in Horseshoe Beach and surrounding areas. The storm also destroyed the only gas station in the small town of Cedar Key, where the eye of the storm passed Wednesday morning.
In Perry, Fla., the storm’s winds tore away the roof and brick facade of an apartment building.
In South Carolina about 13,327 homes were without power, while 19,486 were in the dark in North Carolina. A 30 mph wind gust was recorded early Thursday at Myrtle Beach International Airport, as officials expected more power outages as strong winds were still affecting the region.
In North Carolina, the storm downed trees, scattered foliage and debris, and flooded roads in the Wilmington area, where more than five inches of rain fell in a day while 3,000 households remained without power.
A likely tornado blew a portion of the roof off the Four Paws Veterinary Hospital in St. James.
Tornado damage was also possible in many surrounding communities, however, no casualties had been reported, while the power stayed on in many households in nearby Brunswick.
Only 423 electric customers in Brunswick County were without power Thursday morning, according to Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation, which provides services to more than 98,000 households in the region.
Meanwhile, 1,500 power outages were reported around Leland, Northwest, and Sandy Creek, while up to 650 homes were reportedly without power in Pender County.
The National Weather Service in Raleigh issued flash flood warnings and wind advisories in the eastern Sandhills and Coastal Plain, where gusts as high as 40 mph were reported Thursday morning.
The region around Cape Fear experienced nearly 24 hours of rain, while a number of roads remained flooded in Brunswick County, where sheriff’s officials blocked a section of Shallotte Point Loop Road that remained underwater Thursday morning.
In South Carolina, strong winds led to increased storm surge in Charleston, where an unusually high tide assisted in flooding the downtown district in more than a foot of water.
The water level reached more than 9 feet at Springmaid Pier in Myrtle Beach, according to AccuWeather.
Elsewhere, a tornado ripped through Cherry Grove, northeast of Myrtle Beach, damaging buildings and tearing the roof off at least one home, according to emergency officials.
Video footage from a highway in Goose Creek, northwest of Charleston, showed a car being flipped by a small tornado that touched down earlier Wednesday when Idalia was still at hurricane strength.
Flooding in the coastal community of McClellanville, S.C., reached about 3 feet.
